Free sound libraries

Frank Wen's Fluid Release 3 General MIDI bank; the original download site is gone, and Debian's fluid-soundfont-gm package is the maintained copy.

Released by Frank Wen under the MIT license, so it can be used, modified and redistributed, including commercially, as long as the copyright and permission notice are kept with copies. License.

packages.debian.org

S. Christian Collins's compact GM/GS bank with 261 presets and 13 drum kits, designed to sound good with a low memory footprint.

Free for private or commercial music creation and may be modified or bundled in software projects. The author notes he cannot fully trace every sample's origin, and asks sites to link to his page or host their own copy rather than hot-linking his downloads. License.

schristiancollins.com

A General MIDI bank distributed by MuseScore, adapted by S. Christian Collins from FluidR3Mono with some instruments replaced.

Shared under the MIT license like FluidR3 before it; the listed acknowledgements and copyright notices must be included in any derivative work. License. Size: 206 MB (SF2), 38 MB (SF3).

ftp.osuosl.org

Tim Brechbill's small General MIDI SoundFont, taken from MuseScore's old repository and packaged by Debian.

Debian's copyright file lists the SoundFont under the GNU GPL version 2 and quotes the author: he made some samples himself and the rest are public domain or GPL. The GPL has no explicit exception for music rendered with the sounds. License.

packages.debian.org

FreePats' General MIDI bank built from instruments with strictly checked origins; still incomplete at 45 melodic and 43 percussion entries.

GNU GPL version 3 or later with a special exception: using or mixing the sounds in a composition does not by itself put the composition under the GPL. Some individual samples carry other GPL-compatible licenses. License. Size: 227 MB (SF2), 127 MB (SFZ + FLAC).

freepats.zenvoid.org

Maxime Abbey's custom General MIDI bank assembled from many sources, widely used for playing MIDI files and old game music.

Released as freeware, but the documentation says it is distributed mainly for private, non-commercial use because it contains sounds from other authors; commercial users must get written consent from the credited authors. The author also says he could not trace the origin of a few samples. License.

arachnosoft.com

Alexander Holm's Yamaha C5 grand recorded with 16 velocity layers in minor thirds, remapped for SFZ by the SFZ Instruments project.

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0: use, modification, redistribution and commercial use are allowed with credit to Alexander Holm. License.

github.com

Mattias Westlund's 2011 free orchestral library, now maintained by Peter Eastman with full string, brass, woodwind and percussion sections.

Creative Commons Sampling Plus 1.0 (a retired license): samples may be used and transformed in new works, including commercial music, with attribution, but the library may only be copied and redistributed as a whole for noncommercial purposes, and advertising use is excluded. License.

github.com

A free SFZ orchestra that combines samples from Sonatina, No Budget Orchestra, VSCO 2 CE, the University of Iowa, Philharmonia and others, with performance scripts.

No restrictions on making music with it, including commercially. Redistribution is governed by the licenses of each source library and must give credit; derived libraries must be kept personal or given away free, not sold. License.

virtualplaying.com

More than two dozen free instruments from Karoryfer, including drum kits, basses, guitars, saxophones and oddities, built for SFZ players.

Karoryfer states all its free libraries are now CC0 (older downloads may carry a less permissive license, and the Marie Ork voice bank is the exception), so they can be used and redistributed without restriction. License.

shop.karoryfer.com

A Kawai upright piano recorded for FreePats with 2 velocity layers, in full-size and small builds.

Published under the CC0 1.0 public domain dedication, so it can be used, modified and redistributed for any purpose without credit. Other pianos on the same page have different licenses. License. Size: 32 MB (SFZ + FLAC).

freepats.zenvoid.org

Bengt Nilsson's Yamaha C3 grand with close and Decca tree mics and 5 velocity layers, mapped for SFZ with ARIA extensions (best in sforzando).

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0: use, modification, redistribution and commercial use are allowed with credit. The SFZ port was made with the author's permission on the condition that the original instrument name is kept. License. Size: 156 MB.

github.com

A piano library from Versilian Studios and Karoryfer Samples with SFZ programs and a manual.

The repository's LICENSE is the CC0 1.0 Universal public domain dedication, so it can be used and redistributed for any purpose without credit. License.

github.com

Soprano, alto, tenor and baritone saxophones built from the MTG sample packs on Freesound, looped and mapped for SFZ with vibrato and legato controls.

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0: use, modification, redistribution and commercial use are allowed with credit. License.

github.com

A 1958 Otto Rubner double bass, arco and pizzicato with noises, plus a keyswitched SFZ combining both.

The repository's LICENSE is CC0 1.0, and the readme describes the samples as royalty-free for all commercial and non-commercial use. License.

github.com

SFZ ports of Greg Sullivan's Yamaha CP80, Hohner Pianet T and Wurlitzer EP200 electric pianos.

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported, released with the author's permission and his request for attribution; commercial use and redistribution are allowed with credit. License.

github.com

A 1977 Rhodes Mark I Stage 73 with up to 5 velocity layers and short looped samples, in mono and stereo SFZ versions.

Free to use as an instrument in any of your works. Redistributing the samples themselves (in an app or sample set) is restricted to a non-commercial Creative Commons license; the LICENSE names CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 but links to CC BY-NC 4.0. License.

github.com

Versilian Studios' open chamber-orchestra library with strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion and keys, also mirrored on GitHub with SFZ mappings.

Public-domain dedication: use, modify, redistribute and sell without royalties or attribution. License. Size: 3 GB.

versilian-studios.com

Versilian Studios' broad general-purpose sample set, organised by instrument family, from harpsichords and pianos to world percussion.

Public-domain dedication: the project says you can do whatever you want with the sounds, including commercial software, with no royalties, credit or special terms. License.

github.com

Single-note recordings of orchestral instruments at several dynamics, made by Lawrence Fritts at the University of Iowa Electronic Music Studios since 1997.

The site states the recordings may be downloaded and used for any projects without restrictions; no formal license is attached, so credit to the University of Iowa is courteous. License.

theremin.music.uiowa.edu

Thousands of short notes and articulations recorded by Philharmonia Orchestra players, covering the standard orchestra plus guitar, mandolin, banjo and percussion.

Free to use in any work, including commercial releases, but the samples must not be sold or made available as is, as samples or as a sampler instrument. License.

philharmonia.co.uk

A community site with more than 1,700 free sample packs, mostly for Decent Sampler and Kontakt.

Packs may be used royalty-free in commercial and non-commercial compositions, but selling or redistributing packs you did not create is forbidden, and Pianobook cannot guarantee every upload is copyright-free. License.

pianobook.co.uk

Karoryfer's multi-mic recording of a 1980s Polish drum kit, with many articulations and velocity layers.

Public-domain dedication: free to use, modify and redistribute for any purpose without attribution. License.

github.com

A jazz club house kit recorded with six mixable mic positions by Versilian Studios and Karoryfer Samples, with General MIDI percussion.

Public-domain dedication: free to use, modify and redistribute for any purpose without attribution. License.

github.com

Multichannel acoustic kits (DRSKit, MuldjordKit, CrocellKit and others) made for the DrumGizmo plugin, with SFZ conversions of some kits on SFZ Instruments.

DRSKit and MuldjordKit are CC BY 4.0, so redistribution and commercial use are allowed with credit; the DRSKit page asks for attribution wherever other credits for a composition are shown. Check each kit's page for its own terms. License.

drumgizmo.org

Wilkinson Audio's multi-mic acoustic kit with 10 round-robins and up to 5 velocity layers, packaged for SFZ.

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0: use, modification, redistribution and commercial use are allowed with credit to Wilkinson Audio. License.

github.com

Acoustic drum kits from the AV Linux project, available as Hydrogen kits, SFZ, SoundFont and an LV2 plugin.

CC BY-SA 3.0. Music made with the kits can be distributed or sold without attribution; attribution and share-alike apply only if you modify or redistribute the samples or kit files themselves. License.

bandshed.net

The main and community-donated kits for the Hydrogen drum machine.

Each kit declares its own license in its metadata: many are GPL or CC BY / BY-SA, some state none, and a few forbid redistributing the samples. Check the individual kit before reusing it.

sourceforge.net

Sam Greene's Sonor Force 3001 kit with at least 4 velocity layers, left and right snare hands and a snares-off snare, mapped for SFZ.

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0: commercial use is allowed with credit, and modified versions of the samples must be shared under the same license. License.

github.com

A stereo version of Lars Muldjord's DrumGizmo kit with velocity layers and randomized hits, assembled by FreePats in common sampler formats.

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0: use, modification, redistribution and commercial use are allowed with credit. License. Size: 157 MB (SFZ + FLAC), 53 MB (SF2).

freepats.zenvoid.org

A categorised directory of free and commercial SFZ instruments, plus a GitHub organisation hosting cleaned-up free libraries.

The directory links out to libraries under many different licenses; the GitHub-hosted repositories each carry their own LICENSE file.

sfzinstruments.github.io

The community reference for the SFZ sampler format: headers, opcodes, modulation and player compatibility, with tutorials.

A documentation site rather than a sample source; consult the library you load for sample licensing.

sfzformat.com

A project collecting free instrument banks organised by General MIDI family, with strict rules on sample provenance.

Every bank uses a free license that is Open Source/DFSG-compatible and permits distributing music under any license; individual banks range from CC0 to CC BY and GPL, as listed on each page. License.

freepats.zenvoid.org

User-shared SoundFonts on the site of the Polyphone SoundFont editor, searchable by category.

Each soundfont carries one of the site's listed licenses, from public domain and Creative Commons variants to more restrictive terms; check the license on each download page. License.

polyphone.io

A huge collaborative database of user-uploaded recordings, including many single-note instrument samples and packs.

Each sound is CC0, CC BY or CC BY-NC (some older uploads use Sampling+); attribution sounds need credit, and NC sounds cannot be used in work that earns money. License.

freesound.org

General MIDI banks pre-rendered to per-note audio files and JavaScript for use with MIDI.js and other browser players.

The README lists the Fluid set as CC BY 3.0 and the Musyng Kite and FatBoy sets as CC BY-SA 3.0, so credit (and share-alike for the latter) applies when redistributing. License.

github.com